Archive for the ‘Social media and sport’ Category

Team sponsors are having to focus on activation in their domestic markets during the tournament because of IRB restrictions on promotion at the tournament.  Other companies involved in rugby union are capitalising on the opportunity to push their credentials in the sport.

The IRB is very tough on the whole area of national team sponsors activation, much more so than Fifa and Uefa [in soccer]. They have tried to impose draconian restrictions, which have now lessened slightly.

To effectively promote their association with rugby, team sponsors must focus on classic domestic activation. Effective team sponsorship relies heavily on rugby unions offering their key partners opportunities for better cut-through, particularly around media interviews and partnerships.

Losing the shirt branding [national team jerseys must be free of their usual sponsorship logos during the Rugby World Cup] does impact TV ROI but there is a huge opportunity to be really creative and focus around the fans to create emotional engagement and cut-through, as opposed to some of the more generic above-the-line campaigns the worldwide sponsors have rolled out. The O2 breakfast campaign is a great example of an effective England sponsorship activity.

DHL, the express and logistics company which is an official Rugby World Cup sponsor, has benefited from prominent branding at pitchside at Rugby World Cup matches but, in Europe, is having to fight for space with competitor FedEx, which is pushing its sponsorship of the Heineken Cup, the continent’s top clubs competition, at the same time.

Other companies such as McCoys, who are not currently involved in rugby union, have activated around the Rugby World Cup running on pack promotions. This is a more traditional ambush but very short-lived and one-dimensional and therefore doesn’t create any longevity or emotive engagement. They’d be better picking up some domestic rights and building those in too.

Europe is a key commercial market for global rugby and France, England and Ireland are commercial powerhouses. 2015 is happening on their doorstep and it’s going to be competitive with industry sectors competing to sponsor.

The quicker you get involved the more benefit from first-mover advantage – price of rights and timeline to exploit. 2011 would have been a fallow tournament commercially, 2015 is when the IRB makes hay.

Rupert Pratt

If you have been anywhere near a newspaper this week you will have noticed that it is officially one year to go until the Opening Ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics Games. As a result, the pages have been filled with a barrage of sponsors promoting their association with the Games. Reading my paper this morning, I found it hard to differentiate hugely between the various sponsors and their activation campaigns, nobody is doing anything particularly unique or different, it all seems extremely ‘safe’. God knows when Jessica Ennis gets a chance to train, she seems to be the face of every advert and every interview right now.

The one exception, in my opinion, is British Airways and their Great Britons campaign. By weaving famous chefs, actors and artists into their communications they have managed to create a point of difference to every other sponsor. Importantly, the cultural angle is one that should appeal to their target audience and gives those that aren’t so interested in the sport aspect of the Olympics a reason to get excited about the Games coming to London.

I hope to see some more creative activity over the next 12 months. My feeling is that if we do, it is likely to come from the non-officials.

RA

This week some of the Generate team went to the Think! Sponsorship Conference at the British Museum, where our MD Rupert Pratt was hosting a session on reputation management.  The event was themed around the Digital Revolution and what this means for the sponsorship industry.

The majority of the speakers seemed to have a similar opinion about running sponsorship campaigns in a digital age.  My main outtakes from the day can be summarised by the following 10 tips:

1. Treat digital like any other channel – the traditional rules still apply so it’s still vital to know your audience and target them accordingly
2. Digital can be a great way of getting to hard to reach groups e.g. young men but like any marketing activity you must make sure that you are operating within the same legal boundaries e.g. data protection laws around competitions
3. When communicating via social media make sure you adapt your style accordingly – make it short and simple, well structured, informal, interactive and most importantly optimised for search engines
4. Social media shouldn’t be used as a tool to make a hard sell but to build brand image and loyalty, which can lead to future financial returns
5. Don’ t be scared of social media  – this is a common concern amongst rights holders and corporate brands, which has led to a number of high profile Twitter bans.  If used correctly social media can be a very effective sponsorship tool
6. If you have major reputational concerns social media may not be right for you.  If you do decide to operate in this space make sure you are strategic in your approach – don’t just create a Facebook page if it doesn’t fit with your strategy
7. If your brand does suffer any digital reputational issues it is important to treat it like any other communications crisis but to act faster in resolving it
8. Evaluation is key.  It is vital to develop metrics and KPIs for digital campaigns to measure success
9. To keep up to speed with future digital trends watch out for developments in mobile and augmented reality over the next 12 months
10. For inspiration take a look at some successful digital campaigns such as IBM at Wimbledon, Sky Arts activation of Antony Gormley’s One And Other, Budweiser’s Bud House for the World Cup and Samsung’s partnership with The British Museum

On today’s fragmented media playing field, sponsors need to play a formation that accommodates for both creativity and strategy.

Traditional media is a given, it’s a threshold competency. Yet, for a sponsor to create a captivating consumer focused and integrated campaign across all forms of media, it can expect a greater return on investment in terms of long-term CRM. The Olympic Games and social media share two very similar characteristics; global interaction and participation. The synergy between the two is crying out for a sponsor to develop a memorable campaign that can surpass rival sponsors and generate a unique competitive advantage.

 “It is about how you integrate advertising in a very bespoke and well-integrated campaign which is done via the community to encourage user-generated content and social interaction” (Jerome Touze, co-founder of social network site Where Are You Now?)

Facebook’s official Olympic Games page already boasts 1,710,894 fans, demonstrating the potential networks available online for sponsors to target. And to do so effectively, be it through competitions, viral campaigns or any other promotion that will generate “tweets” and spur peer to peer talk-ability, a sponsor can expect a much greater impact before, during and after the closing ceremony – regardless of whether Usain Bolt runs the 100m in 9 seconds flat.

It isn’t overly surprising that figures from Google Zeitgeist revealed Beijing 2008 was the second fastest increasing web search in 2008, coming just behind ‘Sarah Palin’ and ‘Facebook login’. The online potential for sponsors to optimize their exclusive Olympic association and capitalise on their initial outlay for London 2012 sponsorship is already a very exciting prospect two years prior to the games.

HS

The current crop of top sports stars to cause instant PR crises by leaking information via Twitter, blogs and websites is a modern phenomenon.

The old rules and regulations of releasing information have now been broken down. The advent of email, internet and Twitter means that anyone can become an instant PR but, while the communications industry scrabbles to cover up these PR gaffs, the solution is very old school.  It comes down to the individual’s contract, the policing of that contract and most importantly educating the club individual. A combination of good old media training and old school legal governance. Solve the issue at source. Clubs, governing bodies and rights holders must respond quickly.

 RP